William Shakespeare beside a stony woodland stream

What the Duke reads in stones

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright. In his comedy an exile speaks about the Forest of Arden: the Duke has lost his court and must tell his companions what they might gain here.

A winter without flattery

The wind bites, which is precisely why the Duke calls it an honest counsellor. Words at court might deceive a man about his position. Cold makes itself felt regardless of his rank.

And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.

– William Shakespeare, As You Like It, p. 18.[1]

A sermon without a preacher

English turns the brook into a book and the stone into a sermon. Schlegel hears a lesson in it. Amiens then expressly admires the Duke’s ability to interpret misfortune this way. The reading is the Duke’s achievement.